The present invention relates to a tile adapted to be mounted on a roof, especially an inclined roof, of a house or other building to protect the building against the effects of weather. The roof tile art is one of the oldest technologies known to man. Conventionally, roof tiles have been manufactured by filling a pallet or mold configured in the shape of the tile with fluid material of which the tile is composed. The material hardens, and the hard tile is removed from the pallet.
In a modern, yet common, automated process for manufacturing such tiles, empty pallets are lined end-to-end in an abutting relationship along a conveyer transport. The pallets are sequentially passed into an extruder whereat the fluid material such as concrete is poured into each pallet. The material is in a so called "wet" state, and as the pallets containing the wet material pass out of the extruder, a guillotine or other cutting means severs the wet material in adjacent pallets along the abutting edges of the pallets. Thereafter, the individual pallets having the wet material therein are removed from the conveyer transport and are stored in a curing chamber. After the material is sufficiently cured, the individual pallets containing the dry, hard, cured material therein are placed on the conveyer transport and are carried by the transport to a station having means for separating each pallet from the dry, hardened, cured material therein. After passing through such station, the empty pallets are carried by the conveyer transport to the entrance of the extruder, and the dry, hardened, cured material comprising a tile is carried by separate conveyer transport means to a station whereat the tiles are stacked in a pre-determined number and the stack of tiles is wrapped or bound with plastic banding or the like. Thereafter, each bound stack of tiles is transported with a fork lift or the like to a tile yard or tile holding area where it is stored and then sometime later is delivered by a truck or a railroad car to a customer.
Many roof tiles, including most flat roof tiles, conventionally have been made with a pair of laterally spaced batten lugs protruding from near one end thereof. When stacking such tiles, it is necessary to rotate every other plate by 180.degree. so that the tiles will not tilt with respect to each other, which might undesirably cause tiles to slide or topple from the stacked formation. The function of rotating every other tile during the stacking operation heretofore has involved manual handling and the attendant time delays and increased cost associated therewith or has involved relatively expensive and complex machinery. Moreover, many tiles stacked in such a manner are structurally weak in the region midway between the ends of the tile, which results in a significant number of the tiles being cracked or broken during shipping and handling of the stacks. Other tiles are provided with extra material to strengthen the midsection region.
The present invention was developed primarily as a result of efforts to overcome the problems and costs associated with stacking, handling and shipping of such conventional tiles. However, the present invention is also directed to features that are not principally directed to overcoming these problems.
A patentability search was conducted for the present invention, and the results of that search are discussed in a prior art statement accompanying this patent specification. In the prior art statement, the Patent Examiner has been requested to make his own independent investigation as to the relevancy of the art discussed therein to the present invention.